Recently, a home television game machine which is provided with a timer is developed. Also, a personal computer oftware which employs a timer function is developed.
In general, a home television game is proceeded along a story described on a program. Because of this, in a game programmed to play with a computer, when the story or patterns of the game is almost known by a player, the player will not be so interested in playing it. Particularly in a role playing game, since it always proceeds along the story programmed, it will be boring when the story is almost known. To provide the game story with unexpectedness or reality, some methods are suggested in which a scenery or surrounding is given according to the real time based on the timer in the game machine or the difficulty of the game is changed by generating random numbers.
In the television game software, time is not taken to be so important. Most games are proceeded regardless of the time. The reasons are that most of television game machines are not provided with a timer and that such games proceeded along the timer were not popular with users.
In a game employing a timer function, a base point is determined, and a time period starting from the base point is used. For example, in a car race game in which a time limit is given, if a car reaches a goal within the time limit, a stage of the game can be cleared and the player can try the next stage. In the next stage, a severer time limit or race course is given and the start time is the base point of the time limit. Namely, the start time is zero time(base point), and if the car reaches the goal within the time limit Tn, the player can try the next stage, while, if the car does not reach the goal, the player has to play on the same stage.
Furthermore, some of the computer games of `go` and `shogi` (popular games in Japan) have a limitation that a move has to be made within some seconds. In this case, each time a move is made, the base point for the timer is reset to zero.
As described above, most of the conventional game softwares which employ the timer simply use it as the means for determining a time limit. Namely, they do not use the continuous process of real time(actual clock time). This is because most of them have very little story.
On the other hand, in the role playing games which proceed along the story programmed, time can be an important factor for making it more attractive to players. In this case, the timer is used to perform a derivative scenario on real time, where a specified absolute time such as a specific date of a specific month and a time period of a specific date to another specific date is used. However, if the timer(with a calendar function) is set to perform a derivative scenario that a bargain sale is held from December 20th to December 31st, the player cannot enjoy the game with the derivative scenario at a date other than the specified term or day.